The Metamorphoses of the Brain – Neurologisation and its Discontents

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿What are we exactly, when we are said to be our brain? This question leads Jan De Vos to examine the different metamorphoses of the brain: the educated brain, the material brain, the iconographic brain, the sexual brain, the celebrated brain and, finally, the political brain. This first, protracted and sustained argument on neurologisation, which lays bare its lineage with psychologisation, should be taken seriously by psychologists, educationalists, sociologists, students of cultural studies, policy makers and, above all, neuroscientists themselves.

CONTENTS:1. The Educated Brain. A Critique of Neuro-education2. The Material Brain. A plea for the uselessness of psychoanalysis3. The iconographic brain. An inquiry into the culture of brain imaging4. The Sexual Brain. Against neuro-plasticity5. The Celebrated Brain. The role of the brain in the society of the spectacle6. The Political Brain. The brain as a political invention

Reviews

﻿“This book is a tour de force, combining a thorough grasp of contemporary neuroscience with a caustic critical sensibility nourished by Freud and Zizek, and a literary canon that ranges from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Kafka’s "Metamorphosis.” The question it raises is deceptively simple: what does it mean that we not only “have” a brain, but that it has now displaced mind, soul, and spirit as the key to what humans are. One might expect a reactionary call for a return to old-fashioned humanism, but de Vos gives us instead a bold, well-informed critique of the new model of cranial subjectivity, complete with acerbic reflections on contemporary neuropolitics, sex in the brain, and neuroplasticity.” (W. J. T. Mitchell, Professor of English and Art History, University of Chicago, USA)

“The rage for neuroscientific claims and discoveries continues unabated in the academic and popular media. In this, his newest monograph, Jan De Vos offers a rigorously scholarly analysis of what the reasons for this may be and how this determines the ways the claims are made.” (Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, Professor of critical theory in the department of English literature at the University of Reading)

“If, as De Vos argues, neuroscience is transforming us into speechless monsters, tragic echoes of our human and political past, then we should also acknowledge that De Vos too seems to be turning neuroscience into a monster, a brutal goddess that will not tolerate, as Ovid’s Arachne did, having truth spoken to its power. Perhaps the excess of such excellent critical analysis is its own monstrousness to those that do not understand its concerns.” (Clifford van Ommen, Massey University, New Zealand)